
V7/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 137 544 7 



A Journey to Alaska. 



BY 



HENRY VILLARD. 



IReprinted irum " The New York Evening Post."] 



THE following pages contain a record 
of what I saw and learned on 
a journey in last July and August, from 
Minnesota to Puget Sound and thence to 
Alaska, and after my return from the North, 
through Western and Eastern Oregon. My 
impressions were first published in weekly 
articles in "The New York Evening Post," 
and are reprinted herein from its columns. 

HENRY VILLARD. 



New York, December, 1899. 




CONTENTS : 

page 

St. Paul and Minneapolis, . . 3 

North Dakota and Montana, . . 7 

Washington and Oregon, ... 13 

Tacoma, ..... 23 

Seattle, ..... 26 

Portland, .... 30 

Alaska, ..... 33 

P, 

' JE.Btout. 

J u '02 



ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS. 



My last trip over the Northern Pacitic Road previotis to 
the one taken in July and August this summer occurred in 
the fall of 1891. I'he fatal silver-purchasing act of 1890, the 
so-called Sherman law, had then been in operation over a 
year, and the signs of the mischief it was working were al- 
ready evident in different directions, but not heeded by the 
public of the Northwest. At that time, by request, I ad- 
dressed conunercial bodies at St. Paul, Portlan<l, and other 
])laces, whicli I emphatically warned of the storm that 
was sure to burst sooner or later, and urged them to 
get out of debt, abstain from all speculative ventures, and 
put their houses in order generally. The advice was not 
taken, and the local papers contained only sneering criticisms 
of my warnings. 

The predicted crash came in 1893, ''"<^1 wrought probably 
more havoc in the States traversed by the Northern Pacific 
and Great Northern Railroads than in any other part of the 
country. Recovery from its ravages had hardly begun when 
the disorders of 1896 brought additional trouble to that re- 
gion. 

My visit to these States in the past summer began with a 
stay in the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis. They suf- 
fered as severely by the two panics as any of the larger cities 
west of the Alleghanies. The wreck of their most trusted 
banking institutions swept away a large portion of the accum- 
ulated local wealth and brought great distress to all classes. 
Conunercial and industrial stagnation followed, and real estate 
of every kind depreciated to a degree tliat but a year before 
would have been considered beyond the range of possibilitv. 
The extent of the disturbance and the shock to the confidence 
of the local public by the incompetency and unfaithfulness of 



some of the most trusted citizens as demonstrated in the bank 
failures also helped to make recuperation painful and slow. 

But this year I found unmistakable sym])toms of returning 
vitality. The railroad and bank presidents and the mer- 
chants and manufacturers 1 met all bore testimony to the re- 
vival of business. None claimed that the former prosperity 
had already come back, and some admitted that their two 
cities had as yet been less benefited than other places by the 
rising tide of prosperity throughout the country at large. 
But they agreed that there was a noticeable increase in gen- 
eral trade, and felt confident that it would steadily assume 
larger proportions. Still there are not a few unoccupied 
btisiness places to be seen, and the rents continue to be very 
low. In riding over the street railroads in open cars I ob- 
served, however, only a few unoccupied dwellings, and a con- 
siderable number of new ones under construction, the latter 
fact being especially noteworthy, as there was almost an ab- 
solute cessation of all building activity for five years. 

Another certain indication of the improvement in the 
material condition of the population is the constant increase 
for more than a year past of the earnings of the electric street- 
railway system of the two cities. This system is under one 
management, and one of the most extensive and best con- 
ducted in the United States. It is the only one of so large 
a mileage operated exclusively by electricity, in this case pro- 
duced by water power from the falls of the Mississippi. The 
several inter-urban trolley lines have practically a1)sorbe(l the 
passenger tratric between the two cities which was done for- 
merly by the local trains o<{ the three great railroads termmat- 
mg in them. Most of these trains have been withdrawn for 
want of patronage, and the losses to the respective railroad 
companies from this triumph of electricity over steam amount 
to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. This is of course 
but a repetition of the experience in all the cities of the 
United States where siiuilar competitive conditions exist. 

The founding of St. Paul dates back half a century, and 
that of Minneapolis about forty years. Their growth wa*^ 
rapid and almost apace uiUil the eighties, when the latter 



gainc'tl 1)11 tlic fornicr in population to tlic extent of aljout 20 
per cent. There were, no doubt, considerably more than three 
hundred tliousand people living within their limits when the 
tribulations of 1893 came upon them. That the population 
then came to a standstill is not readily admitted by the resi- 
dents, but doubtless it did, and continued about stationary up 
to 1898. I even heard it statetl that St. Paul has sufifered a 
loss in inhabitants. The material regeneration now in pro- 
gress has naturally led to expectations of new gains, and, as 
a means to that end, hopes and wishes for the enlargement of 
the local industries are again uttered in the press and by the 
public. 

Owing to its convenient and cheap water power, Minne- 
apolis has enjoyed for more than a quarter of a century the 
benefits of the steady growth to large proportions of two im- 
portant industries, the flour and saw mills. This gave it a 
considerable advantage over St. Paul, where only relatively 
small manufactures with a limited market have grown up. 
But St. Paul far outstripped its rival in building up an exten- 
sive wholesale trade. In both cities more or less successful 
efforts were made time and again to start additional manufac- 
turing enterprises, but it is doubtful whether more money has 
not been lost than gained in such undertakings. In spite of 
past disappointments, new experiments in the same direction 
are likely to be tried. It is not probable, however, that they 
will be more successful than the preceding ones, because the 
adverse circumstances which produced failure heretofore still 
exist. Minnesota and Wisconsin being destitute of coal, cheap 
fuel is not within reach, and there is little unused power in the 
Mississippi falls. The great distance from the sources of 
raw materials as compared with other manufacturing centres 
constitutes another drawback, while the large decrease in the 
cost of transporting merchandise from the East to the West 
greatly facilitates the competition of Eastern goods. Still 
other drawbacks are the absence of the l<iiid of labor 
capable of adaption to industrial jmrposes and the pre- 
vailing high rate of wages. The most striking proof of 
this impeding inf^.uence of local conditions is afforded by the 
fact that the millions of tons of iron ore now annually taken 



from the Mesaba and X'erniilion ranges are not worked up in 
the State, but in lUinois. ( )hio, and Pennsylvania. 

Another hindrance, and a more formidable one than any 
of the others mentioned, is to be found in the evolution of the 
great Trusts in almost every field of industry. It is naturally 
more profitable for these monopolizing combinations to sup- 
ply goods made where the cost of production is least than to 
make them at greater expense in the West. The recognition 
of this repressing effect of the Trusts upon industrial develop- 
ment is evidently spreading in the West and explains the ris- 
ing hostility to them. But one looks in vain for signs of a 
popular appreciation of the only radical remedy for indus- 
trial monopolies, the abolition of the protective tarifif, the 
cause of their existence. Only here and there are single 
voices heard calling attention to this sure cure. The hope 
seems, however, well justified that when the injuries to West- 
ern communities through the Trusts are distinctly and seri- 
ously felt, free trade will have its day. 

Some apprehensions were expressed to me by thoughtful 
men as to the future of the Twin Cities, but 1 see no real rea- 
son to doubt that their progress will be a steady one. Their 
nearest competitors to the south and east are Milwaukee and 
Chicago, and the intervening distances are great enough to 
enable the Twins to secure their share of the trade of the 
intermediate territory. To the north as far as the Canadian 
border and as far west as eastern Washington, no other place 
disputes, their supremacy, nor is it ever likely to be disputed 
from those sides. To the east, the growth of Duluth and 
Superior, in conse(]uence of the enormous increaseoftheeast- 
ward shipping business in grain and iron ores and the west- 
ward trafBc in general merchandise and coal, appears to be 
threatening. But it seems to me that because of the poor 
soil and the hard climate of the country adjacent to Lake 
Superior, those two ports, notwithstanding their very greatad- 
vantages for shipping purposes, are not likely to become great 
trading and manufacturing points. Moreover, the steady 
lowering of lake freights, to which their great growth is 
mainly due, is obviously also a great boon to the merchants of 



St. rani and ?\Iinncai)oIis, as it means for them lower prices 
on everythin.q' drawn from Mastern markets. 

Eighteen years ago there were not 'a few local entluisiasts 
who l)elieved and proclaimed that each of the Twins would 
contain 500,000 inhabitants before the close of the century. 
The present generation, and, perha])s, the next one will prob- 
ably not see this dream fulfilled. Hut in addition to the rea- 
sons already given, there are two certain guarantees of future 
advancement. Minnesota is one of the richest of the States 
in agricultural and other natural resources. Its population, 
which is assumed U) have risen to a million and three-quarters, 
is remarkable for intelligence and thrift. In Mimiesota and 
North Dakota, too, there is a happy change from the former 
exclusive culture of wheat to diversified farming, which con- 
stantly increases the earnings and consuming power of the 
inhabitants. Their increasing prosperity is bound to react 
stimulatingly upon the two cities. 

Again, there is the important fact that Minneapolis and 
St. Paul together form one of the greatest railroad centres in 
the country, and as such one of the greatest receiving and dis- 
tributing points. Seven systems of roads, including the very 
large ones of the Chicago. Milwaukee and St. Paul, the 
Northern Pacific and Great Northern Companies, and a:ggre- 
gating 20,000 miles of road, have termini within their limits. 
These channels of trade will never cease to strengthen the 
commerce and industrv of the two cities. 



NORTH DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 

It is regrettable that the west-bound overland trains on 
both transcontinental lines leave the Twin Cities in the even- 
ing and traverse Minnesota at night. For the traveller is 
deprived thereby of the sight of the lake region of the State, 
with its constant succession of beautiful sheets of water of 
varying dimensions and their handsome borders of oak 
groves. More picturesque and attractive landscapes cannot 



be found anywhere. There is a strong resemblance in this 
respect between Minnesota and lake-dotted Sweden and 
Norway, which doubtless accounts in a measure for the great 
number of Scandinavians settled in the State. Many sum- 
mer sojourners already dwell regularly on the banks of the 
larger lakes, and the time will certainly come when the whole 
region will annually swarm with them. 

Not cjuite a quarter of a century has elapsed since the first 
wheat was grown in the valley of the Red River of the North, 
whose subsequent regular yield of vast crops has exercised 
so marked an influence upon agricultural conditions through- 
out the civilized world. It is, indeed, but a little more than 
twenty-five years since Gen. William B. Hazen of the United 
States Army, who had been in command of a military expedi- 
tion through that territory, reported oflficially to the govern- 
ment and published in magazine articles his opinion that 
Dakota was a hopelessly arid land, immigration to which 
should be discouraged. 

It was mainly through the efiforts of some of the original 
Northern Pacitic officials and other men of enterprise that the 
extraordinary capacity of the soil for the production of wheat 
was demonstrated. They bought great tracts of land on the 
west Slide of the Red River, and experimented with the cereal 
on a large scale. Their properties became known as the bo- 
nanza farms, and their fame was spread far and wide. The 
American and foreign guests of the Northern Pacific on the 
opening excursion of 1883 were greatly impressed by the 
spectacle presented by the movement past them of a soHd 
column of twenty-four reapers in full operation in an immense 
wheat field belonging to the 75,000-acre farm of Oliver Dal- 
rymple, not far west of the Red River. These great farms 
were, indeed, "bonanzas" for their owners, when "No. i hard" 
brought a dollar a bushel and over, equal to a profit of 100 
per cent, and more over the cost of production. But those 
halcyon days did not last long, and the vast farms no longer 
exist. The heavy cost of running them and several crop fail- 
ures led to their being cut up and sold. Their yield is not 
now. as a rule, as great as it was in the early years, but the 
Red River valley as a whole still ranks as one of the chief 

8 



granaries of the earth. That part of tlie Dakotas, liowcvcr, 
extending from about fifty miles west of the Red River to the 
so-called Bad Lands west of the Missouri, cannot be said to 
have gained in reputation as a reHable wheat country. The' 
producers have liad as much (hscouragenient as encourage- 
ment. The pecuHarities of the cHniate made husbandry a 
doubtful occupation. There are the uncertain rainfalls, the 
parching winds of the sunnner. late cold spells in the spring, 
early frosts in the fall, and the various insect and other plagues. 
Hence for ten years before the last three good crop years 
there was little progress made. The sales of land by the land- 
grant companies and individual owners declined greatly, and 
many new farms were abandoned. Particularly west of the 
James River these evidences of retrogression became notice- 
able. 

It was natural that the towns, villages, and hamlets along 
the railroad lines, which depend altogether upon the farming 
population for support, should have undergone stagnation 
and even decay. Between Fargo on the Red River and Miles 
City on the Yellowstone, there is not one that has not suffered 
more or less decline during the period mentioned. Bismarck, 
the capital of North Dakota, presented the most woe-begone 
aspect when I last saw it in 1891. At the time I assisted with 
my gviests at the laying of the corner-stone of the State 
Capitol in 1883, on the opening of the Northern Pacific Road 
as a through line, the prospects of the town seemed very prom- 
ising, but it utterly collapsed, and fully half of the buildings 
were deserted. A considerable revival has now begun. In 
Jamestown, Mandan, and Dickinson there are also indications 
of new life, but nowhere does it as yet pulsate so actively as 
one is led to expect in view of the general prosperity of the 
Eastern and Middle States. It is asserted, however, both by 
the officials of the railroad land department and trustworthy 
residents, that the outlook for those small trading points has 
much improved during the last two years. Many of the 
farmers have acted according to the lessons of past experi- 
ence, and, instead of devoting themselves to the raising of 
wheat alone, are trying it with other crops, live stock, and 
dairy farming. Immigration has again set in, and a demand 



for land is once more felt. A good beginning has likewise 
been made in overcoming the most severe drawback to suc- 
cessful farming, the unreliable rain supply, by providing the 
means of irrigation through the boring of numerous artesian 
wells, which have given satisfactory results. 

The condition of the Yellowstone valley appeared little 
changed. Few new settlements were to be seen in the three 
hundred and fifty miles for which the Northern Pacific fol- 
lows the river, but, according to general testimony, along its 
tributaries from the south a good deal of land has been taken 
up for ranches and farms. This is especially the case in the 
valleys of the Big Horn River and its branches, in consequence 
of the construction of the Northern Wyoming branch of the 
Chicago, Burlington and Ouincy Railroad, which connects 
with the Northern Pacific at Billings. This formerly forlorn 
place seems to have received a new impulse by the second 
rail connection, and to be the most thriving of the few towns 
along the Yellowstone. It looks as though the country in- 
cluded formerly in the large Crow^ Indian Reservation, and 
now in Carbon County, Montana, is being settled more rapidly 
than any other part of the State. A large portion of the In- 
dian reservation has been thrown open to settlement, and the 
new county contains what is definitely known to be one of the 
great coal fields of the world. Discovered only about a 
dozen years ago. it already produces not far from half a mil- 
lion tons a year, with every indication that the output will in- 
crease much faster in the future. The coal is good for domes- 
tic use and steaming. The mines have been a great boon to 
the Northern Pacific, which draws its supply of fuel for the 
entire Yellowstone division from this source at rates which 
are just one-sixth of what coal cost the company when it was 
necessary to haul it all the way from Lake Superior. Red 
Lodge, the county seat of Carbon County, where the principal 
mines are located, is a lively town of about two thousand in- 
habitants in a most beautiful situation, nearly 6.000 feet above 
the level of the sea, with a fine view of high mountain ranges. 

Livingstom the last town on the Yellowstone, has not 
made any headway, though it is beautifully located and has 
a certain advantage as the point of junction of the main line 

10 



with the Yellowstone Park branch. If the place had a good 
hotel, many of the visitors to the I'ark would no doubt be glad 
to tarry here either before going into or un coming out of the 
Park, but as it is, all the travel passes by. The summer flow 
of sightseers to the geyser region has not gained as much in 
volume as was expected by the Northern Pacific management. 
With the season lasting less than three months, neither the 
half-a-dozen hotels nor the stage lines in the Park can be well 
run at a profit. lUit the inducement to the railroad company 
to continue the venture lies, of course, in the passenger earn- 
ings by the main line from this traf^c. It is certainly reason- 
able to expect that with the natural increase of travel between 
the Eastern and Western and the North Pacific States, the 
number of those who break the overland journey for the stage 
trip around the Park will steadily increase. The attractions 
of this excursion might be very much increased by opening 
another approach to the Park from the East via the Rocky 
Fork branch and Red Lodge and through the lofty Absaroka 
Mountains. It would be entirely practicable and far richer 
in grand scenery than the Western gateway. 

After the all but unbroken deadness of Yellowstone Val- 
ley vegetation in midsummer, the transition through the Belt 
Mountains to the relative freshness of the Upper Missouri 
Valley is most grateful to the traveller. In that portion of 
Montana, the earliest settlements in the State sprang up in 
consequence of the discoveries of the famous placer mines of 
Virginia City on the Jefferson, which, with the other two of 
the remarkable trinity of rivers, the Madison and Gallatin, 
forms the iNIissouri. 

Bozeman. the first place of importance reached, is one of 
the oldest and handsomest towns and enjoys an attractive 
situation, with lofty snowclad ranges visible in everv direc- 
tion, and a considerable local trade. When, ten or eleven 
years ago, an association of Eastern brewers bought a large 
amount of land from the Northern Pacific in the vicinity for 
the culture of barley, to which the soil was well adapted, it 
was hoped that this would bring about a rapid growth of 
the town. But it has not gained nnich since then, though a 
huge brewery near the station ])roclaims the domain of barley. 

I I 



The several railroad stations between Bozeman and Logan, 
where the branch road to Butte leaves the main line, have also 
become centres around which small towns are struggling for 
existence with but hmited visible success. The settling of 
Gallatin County, of which Bozeman is the county seat, has 
indeed not progressed very fast. This is surprising, as it 
contains more arable land and has a better natural water sup- 
ply for irrigation than any other county in the State. But as 
Montana generally holds out only limited promise to agri- 
culturists, it is perhaps not to be wondered at that no great 
numbers of that class are drawn to it. This is strikingly il- 
lustrated by the fact that nearly 87 per cent, of the entire area 
of the State is still public domain. According" to sanguine es- 
timates, one-fifth of the area, or about eighteen million acres, 
may be irrigated, but this is doubtless an exaggeration, as 
three-quarters of this amount could not be made available 
for agriculture without enormous expense. Between three 
and four millions of acres may be reclaimed from aridity, but 
at the present rate of progress it will take generations to ac- 
complish it. In this respect Colorado is incomparably ahead 
of Alontana, which will never take high rank among the agri- 
cultural States, but remain mainly a grazing and mining 
country. 

The live-stock business in the State about holds its own, 
but the apprehension is expressed that it will decrease here- 
after, owing to the restriction of free pasturing by the estab- 
lishment of so many private ranches. As regards mining, the 
production of silver and gold has improved somewhat, and 
that of copper has received a great impetus by the doubling 
of the market value of that metal. Millions in wages are dis- 
tributed, but the great profits go out of the State. Besides the 
coal fields of Carbon County, others are worked in the Belt 
Mountains, and the total annual product of t'he S'tate probably 
exceeds a million and a half tons. 

Between Logan and Helena the country appears to be 
still very scantily settled. Helena, the capital of the State, 
has not recovered from the bad plight to which it was reduced 
by the collapse of the silver-mining industry upon the great 
decline in the value of the metal. It once could boast of the 



I 2 



most successful national bank between St. Paul and Portland. 
The disastrous failure of that institution in 1893 proved a 
crushing blow to the community. The value of real estate 
has sunk to low figures. The numerous deserted buildings 
about the Northern Pacific station bear pitiful testimony to 
the local distress. As Helena has but a limited agricultural 
population to draw on for support, its prospects seem preca- 
rious, unless new mining developments should come to its 
relief. 

In the long stretch between Helena and Spokane very 
little advance has been made in the last decade. In this se- 
quence of mountain ranges and narrow valleys more growth 
can. however, hardly be expected, for there is scarcely agri- 
cultural land cnougli to support the present scanty popula- 
tion, but the abundance of timber affords support to man and 
some business to the railroad. Even Missoula, the only town 
of anv importance between the cities named, has to show but 
little of the gain in inhabitants and trade which it was sup- 
posed the construction of the long and costly branch line to 
the Coeur d'Alene mining region would bring. 

Unfortunately, the mass of the people of Montana still be- 
lieve fanatically in the sixteen-to-one gospel, and look upon 
P)ryan as their coming saviour. Rut, as part of their faith, 
violent hostility to the industrial Trusts animates them also, 
and they might go s(j far in it as to accept a modification of 
the existing'" tariff. 



WASHINGTON AND OREGON. 

To an observer of the development of the Western States. 
Spokane is a pleasure to l^ehold. One need have no hesita- 
tion to say that of all the newer cities west of the Mississippi 
it has risen fastest and most substantially. When I visited 
the place first in t88i it was of recent birth, and consisted of 
a small aggregation of cheap frame structures. The inhabi- 
tants had boldly squatted on Indian land, and the object of 
my visit at that time was to hold a pow-pow with the chiefs 
of the Spokane tribe regarding the extinction of the Indian 



title, which talk actually took place on a wooded spot where 
now one of the finest business edifices stands. From these 
small beginnings, in the course of a few years, a city of 30,000 
inhabitants with a substantial Eastern character had sprung 
up, when the great fire of August 4, 1889, swept away in a 
few hours almost the entire commercial quarter. Upon the 
ruins arose, in less than three years, that greater and finer city 
of between 40,000 and 50,000 people which now surprises the 
newcomer. The w'ide business streets form compact lines of 
brick and stone buildings, many of a size and style that would 
do credit to any city on the Atlantic Coast. They present a 
picture of activity unequalled in any other Pacific Coast city 
north of San Francisco. But the residence part of Spokane 
is even more creditable. It is doubtful if there is a place of 
the size in the West where so many attractive and commodious 
homes can be found. The architecture is pleasing, and good 
taste is sliown in the arrangement of the surrounding grounds. 
The whole appearance of the city speaks of the presence of an 
intelligent, energetic, prosperous, and public-spirited popula- 
tion. 

So much could not have been achieved in so short a time 
without special local advantages, and in this Spokane has, in- 
deed, been unusually fortunate. The greatest of all is 'the 
inmiense water-power afiforded by the splendid falls of the 
Spokane River, estimated at no less than 75,000 horse-power, 
within the 'limits of the city. Of this but about an eighth part 
is as yet utilized directly and indirectly by transformation into 
electric energy for the operation of flour mills and other 
manufactures and of light plants and the whole 
street-railway system. The unused water power insures 
larger industrial development. Next, the great agri- 
cultural districts, embracing thousands of square miles 
of some of the richest lands in the country extend- 
ing to the south and to the west of the city, are bringing 
steadily growing trade to Spokane. The enterprise of D. C. 
Corl)in, a well-known Western railroad builder (brother of 
the late Austin Corbin), in giving the place direct connection 
b\ a railroad to the Kootenay mining region in southeastern 
British Columbia, opened another source of great wealth. 

'4 



riic line now forms part of the (Ircat Xorthern system. The 
I)uilding of this road made good to Si)i:)kane many times the 
loss suffered by tlie decHne in the silver mines of the C(xur 
d'Alene region. .\ number of old residents of Spokane were 
among the first to profit by the discoveries of precious metais 
in the Kootenay region, and have acquired large fortunes in 
mining enterprises there. They are giving the city the ben- 
efit of their rapidly acquired wealth by the erection of fine 
business edifices and beautiful private residences. Last, not 
least, the delightful climate, with its moderate changes of tem- 
perature all the year round, must be mentioned. Another help- 
ful influence will come with the impending development of 
the sugar-beet industry on a large scale within a few miles of 
the city. But for these several favorable factors Spokane 
would be getting more slowly over the deep depression which 
the crises of '93 and '96 produced there in no less degree than 
in the other cities of Washington and Oregon. 

Twenty years ago not a hundred thousand bushels of 
wheat were produced within the domain of Washington be- 
tween the Snake and Columbia Rivers and r)ritisli Columbia, 
which comprises nearly one-third of the whole area of the 
State. It is safe to say that the product of that region has 
now reached twenty millions of bushels. When I organized 
the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company in the summer 
of 1879, hardly a million of bushels were raised in the south- 
east corner of Washington, south of the Snake River, and in 
the whole of Eastern Oregon, while the annual crop now 
ranges between twelve and fifteen million bushels, of which 
four-fifths is grown between the Blue Mountains and the 
Columbia and Snake Rivers. Other branches of agriculture 
have also become developed in the eastern parts of the two 
States. 

But no progress like this in the tillage of the soil has 
taken place in western Washington and western Oregon. In 
the former, this is due to the very limited area of timberless 
cultivable land and the great cost of clearing away the very 
heavy forest growth. The settler will not spend a hundred 
dollars' worth of labor per acre when he can buy the acre of 
clear land east of the Cascades at a low price. In western 

15 



Oregon there is more fruit-raising, and hop-growing has been 
introduced. But the old drawbacks still exist in the magnifi- 
cent Willamette valley, whose extent and fertility ought to 
make it the seat of varied and profitable model husbandry. 
The race of the pioneer settlers, mainly from Missouri, who 
were able to acquire estates of thousands of acres under the 
donation law of Congress, has not died out yet. In other words, 
the real evil of too large farms, which the owners from want 
of energy will cultivate only in part, still exists to a consider- 
able degree. The exclusive wheat crop is also still the rule. 
There has not been the influx of new population of a more in- 
telligent and active type from which alone a change for the 
better could be expected. In the other main divisions of 
western Oregon, the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, with 
their more limited areas of tillable land, conditions little better 
than stagnation have prevailed. 

In eastern Washington, outside of Spokane, and in east- 
ern Oregon there are as yet but small beginnings of industry. 
A number of small flour mills exist in both sections, and a 
number of quartz stamp mills in Baker County, Oregon. There 
is practical evidence that mineral wealth exists in Washington 
east of the Cascade range, both to the east of the Columbia 
and between it and the mountains north of the Yakima, which 
better means of communication will render important. Prom- 
ising prospects have been developed for years in the Colville 
and Okanogan districts. In eastern Oregon mining opera- 
tions have been carried on for many years in Baker, Grant. 
Union, and Malheur Counties, but without any great aggre- 
gate results until the present time, when the annual production 
is claimed to approach several millions in gold. There is 
certainly much greater activity in those counties than ever 
before, and a considerable inflow of capital, so that increased 
yields may be looked for. 

In western Washington the abundance of coal and the 
wealth of timber have proved rich compensations for the agri- 
cultural limitations. The mining of precious metals along 
the western slope of the Cascades seems also to hold out bet- 
ter promise than heretofore. The cheap coal has, however, 
not yet led to much industrial growth, but promoted transpor- 

i6 



tatioii by land and water, and the large export of it to Califor- 
nia and western Oregon is bringing a great deal of wage money 
into the eountry. The I'uget Sound luniljer business reached 
large proportions in a comparatively short time, but has un- 
dergone great fluctuations of activity and dullness. Just now 
the saw and planing-mills are driven to their utmost capacity 
and get satisfactory prices for their out])Ut. The managers of 
one of the greatest mills said that if they had double the ca- 
pacity, they could not fill the orders offered. The manufac- 
ture of cedar shingles has become a special feature. Less than 
twelve years ago the Northern Pacific traffic men succeeded 
in opening an outside market for them. From a few hundred 
carloads a year the shipment grew' to thousands and tens of 
thousands, and it is expected that the total during the current 
year will be not less than fifty thousand carloads over the 
Northern Pacific and Great Northern systems. As owing to 
the larger cars and the perfect drying of shingles, the im- 
proved tracks, and greater motive power, much heavier train- 
loads are hauled, this traffic yields satisfactory returns. The 
A\'ashington cedar shingles are not only in demand in the 
United States, but gaining a market all over the world. The 
enormous consumption of timber by the many mills aroimd 
Puget Sound is fast raising the question of the possible scar- 
city of material, and some of the owners of the larger mills 
are taking measures of protection by extensive purchases of 
rights to cut timber and by adopting the policy of cutting out 
instead of completely cutting down tracts, in order to insure a 
permanent supply. 

Notwithstanding the plenitude of coal at a low^ price, and 
the extensive use of wood as a cheap fuel, considerable capi- 
tal is being invested in w'ater-power plants on several of the 
mountain streams running from the Cascades into Puget 
.Sound, by which electrical energy is to be produced and 
transmitted to the cities of Seattle and Tacoma and other 
points, for lighting, traction, and manufacturing purposes, 
llie large plant at Snoqualmie Falls is about to begin opera- 
tion. In view of the limited demand for power and the cneap- 
ness of coal, these enterprises seem premature and not likely 
to become lucrative investments. 



Western Oregon is practically destitute of coal. Exten- 
sive searches made under my direction for that min- 
eral along the western slopes of the Cascades as well as the 
Coast range brought to light slight veins here and there, but 
they proved unworkable both as to quantity and cjuality. A 
more promising deposit is known to exist on the coast near 
the mouth of the Nehalem River, but the location presents 
difficulties of exploitation. This deficiency is, of course, in 
the way of the building u]) of local industries, but the present 
generation still enjoys the advantage of cheap wood for fuel 
purposes to such a degree that more would spring up than 
exist if they could be made to pay. As it is, half-a-dozen 
flour, two large woolen, and a number of saw mills, a paper 
factory, and shipbuilding yard at Portland constitute the sum 
of manufactures. 

The falls of the\\'illamette, twenty-six miles from its mouth, 
have given rise, at Oregon City, to a group of manufactories, 
a w^oolen mill long established and turning out blankets of na- 
tional reputation, and a paper mill which is one of the biggest 
and finest in the Union. L'ormerly the power was supplied 
through races, but now it is furnished from an electrical plant, 
erected at a cost, it is said, of nearly two millions of dollars, 
which so far has found a market for only a part of the current 
produced, although it is transmitted to Portland, sixteen miles 
distant. The lumber business has not reached the proportions 
of that of Puget Sound, although the magnificent forests of 
the Cascade and Coast ranges offer a vast supply of material, 
but there are signs that greater enterprise will be shown in this 
respect hereafter. 

For well nigh forty }ears, mining for the precious metals 
has been carried on in the valleys of southwestern Oregon — 
that is, at different points along the Cmpqua and Rogue Riv- 
ers and their tributaries, and about the Klamath Lakes, but it 
has been confined mostly to placer washing. Veins of ore- 
bearing rock were discovered, but not successfully worked. 
Recently very rich quartz veins have been struck, and are ex- 
pected to lead to the erection of stamp mills. The filling up 
of the southern counties with a mining population would in- 
fuse new life into western Oregon. 

18 



It is a singular fact that Wasliiiii^toii and Oregon have yet 
no iron or steel works within their borders. The reason is the 
lack of workal)le ores within easy reach. Some deposits ex- 
ist on some of the islands of J'uget Sound and Ihilish Colum- 
bia, and near I'ortland, and vain attempts have been made to 
utilize them, but they were aliandoned after the l&ss of a good 
deal of money. Thus it was necessary to transport overland 
all the cast and wrought material used in the construction of 
the men-of-\\'ar in San Francisco Bay and at i'ortland and 
Paget Sound ports during the last few years. 

In their fisheries, Washington and Oregon possess a great 
source of wealth, \vhich both the State and National Govern- 
ments have been systematically fostering for some }ears, 
tlirough laws preventing indiscriminate fishing practices, and 
establishing regular culture of native and foreign species oi 
fish. In Washington walers the catch is alread\- very large, 
and includes salmon, halibut, cod, and other kinds. In Ore- 
gon, salmon fishitig along the Columbia represents nearly the 
whole of the fishing business. It began some thirty years ago, 
and has been pursued on a large scale ever since. As early 
as 1876 15,000 tons of canned salmon were shipped from As- 
toria, at the mouth of the river, to San Francisco, and from 
then until now the "crop" has varied from 10,000 to over 20.- 
000 tons (thirty-one cases of four dozen one and one-half- 
pound cans each make a long ton), a stason. This notwith- 
standing the intense conipetition which the catch in the 
waters of Washington, British Columbia, and even Alaska, 
amounting together to nearly 30 oro tons more, has created. 
Sometimes it seemed as though a decline in the run of the fish 
had set in. but such fears have always been dispelled by its re- 
appearance in larger shoals. 

Washington and Oregon have both been blessed for several 
vears with large wheat and other crops, which were marketed 
at good prices. Tens of millions of dollars were thus distribu- 
ted among their farming population. While this served large- 
ly to pav old debts, it must have added much also to the pur- 
chasing capacitv of the people, and thus benefited all classes. 
One shoiild think, therefore, that the two States would be in a 
generallv prosperous condition, and that this prosperity would 

19 



be reflected in the condition of their great and small commer- 
cial centres. This seems to be the case, however, only to a 
limited extent. Spokane, as shown, has resumed its onward 
career. Seattle, too, is moving forward again as fast as ever, 
but Tacoma and Portland still show the scars and the debility 
caused by the past years of adversity. The small interior 
towns and the villages of Washington east and west of the Cas- 
cades make a better showing than those of Oregon ; yet, with 
hardly any exception, they were stationary or running down 
for years after 1893, and only a few can even now boast of a 
resumption of growth. Colfax in the Palouse country, Lew- 
iston on the Snake (in consequence of having at last obtained a 
railroad connection), and Ellendale on the eastern slope of the 
Cascades, belong to the latter class. 

As regards both western and eastern Oregon it is really not 
surprising that the small towns and villages have been station- 
arv. and even retrogradmg, when the small increase in the ag- 
ricultural production of the State, its main source of wealth, is 
considered. It would be dif^cult to name other exceptions 
than those of Astoria, which has gained some thousands in 
population, in occupied area, and in trade, and the fast-grow- 
ing mining town of Baker City. On the other hand, a num- 
ber could be pointed out which are no longer what they for- 
merly were. Ihere is but one explanation of tliis state of 
things: the condition of the farmers of the two States has not 
been so much improved by the good harvests of the last few 
}'ears as has been assumed, ovving to previous indebtedness, 
and perhaps the reduction of profits bv greater cost of produc- 
tion. This view is entertained by leading merchants in differ- 
ent parts north and south of the Columbia. 

Perhaps the worst traces of the destruction of the storm 
of 1893 anywhere, are to be seen in Washington, on 
Pugfet Sound. Its shores are strewn with the wrecks 
of towns which never had any legitimate title to 
exist at all, and which owed their rise to wild il- 
lusions, crazy speculation, or deliberate confidence games. 
Among them Port Townsend on the western shore, when ap- 
proached from the sea, presents a very imposing appearance, 

20 



with its r.ianv stati'l}- buildiiiij^s, l)ut a \vall< thrt)Ui;h the streets 
reveals a sad state of attenuatioti in the many empty stores and 
abandoned private residences. A large, costly hotel was built, 
but never opened. Everett, on the eastern shore, is a monu- 
mental instance of the liability to the costliest mistakes of even 
the shrewdest and most experienced business men. It was to 
be pushed to the front rank among the Puget Sound cities by 
all the power of unlimited capital. It became the terminus of 
the railroad to the Monte Cristo silver mines, in the Cascade 
range, which were thought to be among the richest ever dis- 
covered. It was to be made a great manufacturing centre, to 
which the plants for a great ship-building establishment, a big 
paper-mill, a large smelter, and other industries were sent out 
and set in operation. A hotel, city hall, and hundreds of build- 
ings were erected and occupied by a few thousand inhabitants, 
but the foimtain-head of expected prosperity, the mines, yield- 
ed only unworis'alile ores, the railroad was twice almost de- 
stroyed by floods and repaired at great cost, and finally given 
up altogether, and gradually the whole scheme proved a failure. 
Other noteworthy cases were the several "boom" and bubble 
towns at different points on Anacortes Island, in which spec- 
ulators' traps thousands of people were caught and lost every 
cent ot their investments. The visitor to the island will find 
ground all over it for amazement at human greed and folly. 
It will be remembered that the silver craze raged violently 
for a long time in Washington and Oregon. It would seem 
now that a lasting cure of the majority from this popular dis- 
ease has been compassed in both States. In Washington the 
discovery of gold in the Klondike had probably as nmch to do 
with the conversion as any other agency. The great stream 
of the yellow metal flowing in from the north proved a most 
convincing argument. In Oregon the steadfast advocacy of 
the gold standard by the late Senator Dolph and other sound 
Republican leaders, including Senator Simon, but above all 
the incessant preaching of sound-money doctrines by the 
"Daily Oregonian," are entitled to credit for the change. But 
in Washington, there will probably be another heated contest 
in the next Presidential election, with the chances, however, 
much in favor of sound money. 

2 [ 



It would be difficult to find a public man or a newspaper, 
either in Washington or Oregon, willing to say a word in de- 
fense of the organization of the great industrial Trusts. x\n uni- 
versal and bitter outcry is heard against them everywhere, 
east and west of the Cascades, and it would not be difficult to 
start a strong movement in the two States against the system 
of excessive protection by the existing tariff which has led to 
their organization. 

I had the first opportunity of seeing in Oregon what is no 
doubt the greatest railroad wreck in the United States, the 
famious, or rather infamous, Oregon-Pacific. This stupend- 
ous failure forms one of the most curious chapters in the his- 
tory of great financial frauds. It reveals a liability to illusions 
and deceptions on the part of men most prominent as financial 
leaders in Wall Street twenty years ago that is difficult to com- 
prehend. This is the more puzzling inasmuch as they were 
fully warned against the swindle, but allowed themselves 
for years to be bled for millions. I published myself a full ex- 
posure of this gigantic confidence game over my signature in 
1881, but the victims continued to submit to the plundering. 
They allowed themselves to be persuaded that, on the shallow 
Yaquina Bay, on the Oregon coast, a harbor could be made 
rivalling those of San Francisco and the Puget Sound cities, 
and suitable as a terminus for a new transcontinental line suc- 
cessfully competing with the existing Pacific Railroads. They 
took one lot of first-mortgage bonds after another up to a total 
of $15,000,000. but in the end found only that they had as 
security a road of 142 miles, with a limited equipment, be- 
ginning on the uninhabited coast and ending in the wilderness 
on the eastern slope of the Cascades, near the sources of the 
Santiam. The road has never earned even operating expenses, 
and was so worthless that at the final foreclosure sale in 1894, 
it brought only $100,000. all told, for the road, rolling stock, 
motive power, and all other appurtenances. 



22 



TACOMA. 



There is much to be said regarding the two Paget Sound cit- 
ies, Tacoma and Seattle. To begin with tlie first named, the 
city on Commencement Bay was from the start an artificial 
creation rather than a natural outgrowth of favorable local 
circumstances. It has a fine harbor, but there are many other 
good harbors on the Sound, and Tacoira would not have risen 
but for its selection as the terminus of a great transcontinental 
railroad line, the Northern Pacific. As such terminus, the 
railroad company naturally sought to build up the largest pos- 
sible place to swell its passenger and freight tratftc and to de- 
rive the profits from its principal ownership of the site. This 
led to the gradual expenditure of millions in local improve- 
ments, which naturally stimulated the growth of the place. 
The resulting appreciation of real estate brought a large part 
of this outlay back to the railroad treasury out of town-lot 
sales. It was taken for granted, too, that the very fact of its 
being the temiinus of the Northern Pacific afforded a sure 
guarantee that Tacoma would be not only a local business 
centre, but the focus of the North Pacific coastwise trade, 
as well as a great entrepot of the commerce between North 
America and Asia. 

Thus the place grew from a mere village in 1879, in which 
year the Northern Pacific woke from its six years of compuls- 
ory inactivity and resumed the construction of the main line, 
into a city of between 40,000 and 50,000 inhabitants in 1890. 
It was laid out and provided with public improvements for a 
much larger population. There was not business enough to 
warrant such growth, but the continuous inflow of new capital 
for real-estate investments and building purposes kept up the 
illusive expectation of uninterrupted progress. At my visit 
in 1891 the people were still full of confidence, but the panic of 
1893 made short work of the artificial fabric and reduced it to 
the lowest level. Everything collapsed, including the great 
railroad, and general ruin hung over the communitv. Five 



of the twelve banks failed. Many business houses closed, and 
most of the surviving ones eked out a profitless existence. 
Real estate became entirely unsalable. The Tacoma Land 
Company, the parent of the city, on whose stock large divi- 
dends had been paid and which commanded a high 
jiremium. could not sell any more lots nor collect 
deferred payments and rents enough to pay its taxes, 
so that they remained in default for several years, 
and its . entire property came ■ near being sold for non- 
payment. The great hotel it undertook to erect stands 
to-day only two-thirds finished. There are long business 
streets on which not one in three of the buildings is occupied. 
Even well improved properties will to-day not bring more 
than from a quarter to a third of their cost. I can illustrate 
this depreciation by a practical experience of my own. 
Against my will I l^ecame the owner of a piece of land in the 
outskirts of the city. I had to take it for a debt at the rate of 
$400 an acre. During my recent stay I set out with a real- 
estate agent to find it and get an estimate of its value. He 
astonished me by naming $25 an acre as the highest price it 
miqlit possibly bring. The street-railway system of the city 
was sold vmder foreclosure of a second mortgage of $1,350,- 
000, subject to a first mortgage of $85,000. The sale yielded 
only 51-10 per cent, net to the second-mortgage bondholders. 
That telling commercial thermometer, the local clearings, like- 
wise disclosed a great dwindling away of general business. 

Still, there is visible evidence that some solid substance is' 
left in the urban body. The residence part of the city, inhal:)i- 
ted by the better class, contains a great number of attractive, 
vvell-kept-up homes, most of the owners of which were able to 
hold on to them during the hard times. The appearance of 
this quarter is most creditable, and a distinctive feature of the 
place, showing fine taste and public spirit, and indicates that 
there exist excellent social elements. It is well known, indeed, 
that an unusual percentage of intelligent, cultured families are 
included in the community, and to their presence the high 
character of the local educational facilities may be ascribed. 

A resurrection of Tacoma began some time ago, and appears 
to proceed slowly but steadily. The banks once more have 

24 



something- to do, and the merchants make i^ains. The local 
industries, great saw and planing-mills, and others, are again 
in full blast, and even the smelter, which was started to help 
the Xorthern Pacific, but proved for years a losing venture, is 
in operation again and being enlarged. The railroad com- 
pany has also increased its working force at the great repair- 
shops near the city. It is not easy to .see. however, where the 
increase of business is to come from, which is absolutely need- 
ed to create new uses for the great nuniiber of vacant business 
places. As Tacoma has but a limited agricultural hinterlaiul. 
and as the traffic of the neighboring coal-mines, the smelter 
and saw and planing-mills. consists mainly in transit 
shipments, the prospect can hardly be considered hopeful 
unless more local industries are established and a larger 
outside trade secured. But there is no capital available for 
the former, and even if there were, the settled policy of the 
great Eastern manufacturing Trusts against the building up 
of rival undertakings on the Pacific Coast would prevent it. 
As regards an expansion of trade, a line of English steamers 
has been running to Japan and China under the name of 
Northern Pacific Steamship Company, for some years. It 
carries flour from the local mills on the westward, and teas and 
raw silk on the eastward voyages, but it has not led so far to 
the establisliment of commercial houses on the spot for the 
Asiatic trade. There is also a large tonnage of wheat shipped 
direct to England in sailing vessels, which disburses consid- 
erable money. Alaska also represents a promising field. A 
few enterprising citizens are exerting themselves for a share 
of that northern trade, and it would be well for the city i'f there 
were more of the kind. It is said that the people of Tacoma 
have heretofore relied too much upon the parental care of the 
Northern Pacific, and did not feel the necessity of self-help as 
much as did their neighbors of Seattle. As the days of rail- 
road patronage are. however, now substantially over, they will 
have a chance to demonstrate what mettle they really possess. 



-0 



SEATTLE. 



Nearly twenty years ago the people of Seattle, when they 
numbered but a few thousand, decided to build the sliort rail- 
road of twenty miles from the town to the Newcastle coal mine 
with their own means and labor. Almost the entire popula- 
tion, men, women, and children, turned out for the work, all 
contributing to it to the best of their ability. The records of 
Western pioneer life may be searched in vain for a like instance 
of devoted cooperation for a common purpose. But this en- 
terprise absorbed too much of the local resources and resulted 
in much embarrassment. It was my good fortune to be able 
to come to the rescue by the purchase of the coal mine and 
railroad for the Oregon Improvement Company, whose best 
properties they have formed to this day. 

Ten years ago I availed myself of the hospitality of the Can- 
adian Pacific Company and passed over the whole length of its 
main line from Montreal to Vancouver, on Puget Sound. On 
reaching the latter place on June 6, 1889, I learned that a great 
fire was raging at Seattle. On approaching the next day by 
boat, I saw vast volumes of smoke overhanging the city. On 
landing I discovered that the entire business portion, covering 
sixty-five acres and representing $15,000,000 worth of prop,- 
erty, had been reduced to ashes, and that, as not a green-groc- 
ery, not a provision store, not a butcher or baker shop was 
left standing, the population was threatened with starvation. 
This was averted by the prompt succor afifoided from every 
direction, but for days thousands were fed at public tables set 
up in a shaded square and supplied from open-air kitchens. 
The destruction was so • wide-spread and complete that it 
looked as though a long time would elapse before the great 
waste space could be filled again. But, nothing daimted, the 
citizens held a meeting the morning after the fire and resolved 
to rclmild Seattle, and in even larger proportions. They made 
good their resolution. Like Spokane, within two years Seattle 

26 



IkuI fully risen :ii;'ain in solid fornis of brick and stone, more 
imposing^ than before. 

I mention these two incidents in the history of Seattle as the 
best illustrations of t'he character of its people. To their res- 
olute spirit, enthu-'^'iastic self-confidence, and untirinc^ energy 
they owe their extraordinary success, in creating^ out of no- 
thing a tlourishino- city of proba1):y between 65,000 and 70,000 
inhabitants. The creation is the more remarkable as the lo- 
cation is not a well-chosen one, the steep hills, along whose 
slopes the business streets run, making development difficult 
and expensive, and compelling precarious extensions on piles 
over tide-water flats. I must confess that the continuous 
growth of Seattle often puzzled me, as it did not seem justified 
jjy the resources of the place. Neither the Newcastle nor the 
other tributary coal mines opened since, nor the adjacent farm- 
ing settlements and lumber camps, nor the s'hipping busine&s 
appeared to furnish sufihcient support for so many people. 
There was also the serious drawback of the constant partiality 
shown to Taco'ma by the old Northern Pacific management. 
There never was a greater piece of short-sightedness in Amer- 
ican railroad management than to leave Seattle without con- 
nection with the main line. I corrected the blunder as soon 
as I controlled the company's policy, but this did not put an 
end to the local outcry for another direct railroad line to the 
wheat regions of eastern Washington, and still another to tap 
the country along the east shore of the Sound to the boundary 
of Britis'h Columbia. The two lines of the Seattle, Lake Shore 
and Eastern Railroad Company owed their origin to it, but 
only the latter was completed, while the former remains un- 
finished. Both were absorbed Ijy the Northern Pacific, whose 
rivals they were intended to be. 

The city grew and grew, and even the crash of 1893 had but 
a temporary effect. As everywhere else, that year brought ser- 
ious banking troubles and prostrated domestic and exterior 
trade, and real-estate values shrunk very badly. The recovery 
was hastened by two most influential events, viz., the comple- 
tion of the Great Northern Railroad, the transcontinental com- 
petitor of the Northern Pacific, and the breaking out of the 
Klondike gold excitement, which latter was a most timely 
smile of fortune, from which Seattle has so far profited more 

27 



than any other of the competitive cities. By the accession of 
the Great Northern. Seattle gained greatly over Tacoma. It 
became the outlet of two great systems, while the latter re- 
mains the terminus of one only. It has also secured the ben- 
efit of the great government dry-dock and naval station at 
Port Orchard on the other side of Elliott Bay, on which the 
city lies, and of a large government army post, adjoining the 
city, and comprising a thousand acres. It has, besides, a float- 
ing dry-dock and a ship-yard, at which several vessels have 
been built for the United States government. It is also the 
seat of the State University, which came near being forced to 
close at one time, owing to the failure of the Legislature to 
make appropriations for it, but is now a flourishing institution. 

Like Tacoma, Seattle has a steamer line to Japan and China, 
operated by a Japanese company in connection with the Great 
Northern Railroad, which carries about the same sort of car- 
goes as the Tacoma line, with the same limited local benent. 
The other shipping business is, however, very considerable 
and a large Puget Sound and Pacific coastwise fleet of sail- 
boats and steamers is engaged in it. Grain shipping is not 
large compared with that of Tacoma and Portland. Seattle 
has ever since the beginning built great hopes on the fact that 
the large and beautiful Lake Washington Hes in its immediate 
vicinity — the present city limits, indeed, extend to it — and is 
capable of connection with tide-water by a short canal, which 
would make the lake the only fresh-water port on the Pacific 
Ocean, entirely safe from that plague of ships and docks, the 
teredo. So far, these hopes have not been fulfilled, but they 
are persistently clung to, and appeals to the government for 
aid will continue to be made. 

Besides a big flour mill, only a number of small industries 
are found in the place. The reason given for this is the want 
of level ground owing to the hilly character of the site, already 
referred to. There is a great extent of tide-flats, amounting 
to about fifteen hundred acres, directly to the west of the im- 
proved part of the city, of which a local company has under- 
taken the filling to above high-water mark, under the liberal 
policy adopted by the State to encourage the utilization of tide- 
lands generally within its jurisdiction. The companv began 
operations in 1895, 'i"<J fill^-'d about fifty acres, when it came to 

28 



a Iralt owin^- lo financial difficulties, and lias not since been 
able to resume the work, for which several millions are wautefl. 
Tt is certain that more level buildinj;- space is urgXMitly needed 
for the growth of the business portion, and tlie en4eri)rise will 
doubtless be carried out sooner or later. 

That a large general business is done in Seattle is proved by 
the clearings of the banks of the place, which work with a cap- 
ital of over $7,000,000. The clearings for eight months in 1899 
show a gain of nearly 40 per cent, over last year, and were 
more than twice as large as those of Tacoana and even larger 
by $2,ooo,coo than those of Portland. The Klondike rush 
gave rise to a very large business in outfitting the gold-seekers, 
and in furnishing regular supplies of all kinds to the mining 
districts. But as rich a harvest as the local merchants gath- 
ered in 1897 and 1898 was not again vouchsafed to them last 
season. There was a steady decline in the Klondike trade 
last Summer. The reason is that the Dominion merchants 
and manufacturers have become alive to their opportunity 
and are shipping goods in bond through Alaska to the Canad- 
ian gold region, which method, of course, gives tliem an ad- 
vantage over American competition to the extent of the Can- 
adian duty. But the certain increase of mining interests in 
Alaska will bring compensation for this -loss in due time. 

Tacoma is far ahead of Seattle in the character of its private 
residences. In fact no such fine homes are to be found on the 
heights of Elliott Bay as may be seen hy the score in Tacoma. 
Seattle houses are relatively small, and not only their size but 
their exterior and the grounds about them reveal an indiffer- 
ence to appearance in striking contrast with the aspect of the 
rival city. To speak plainly, the residence quarter of Seattle 
is very shabby, and I could not help repeating the question so 
often asked in the past : "Why is it that people so pushing and 
well-to-do care so little for tasteful and commodious homes?" 



29 



PORTLAND. 



When I saw Portland for the first time twenty-five years 
ago. it had about 16,000 inhabitants. Even then it was a 
■very attractive place in its beautiful position on rising ground 
on the left bank of the Willamette, fourteen miles from its 
junction with the Columbia, commanding a splendid view 
of the three volcanic snow peaks, Mounts Hood, Adams, 
and St. Helen's, with its two lively business thoroughfares 
parallel to the river, followed to the base of wooded hills 
by well-shaded residence streets, along which pleasant houses, 
■ suited to all circumstances, were to be seen. The town had 
grown up to what it w^as then by the considerable trade with 
the long-settled Willamette valley and the limited settlements 
of the Walla Walla region and eastern Oregon. It had only 
scanty connections with the rest of the world. There was the 
stage line over the 275 miles separating the terminus of the 
Oregon and California Railroad at Roseburg from that of the 
California and Oregon at Redding in northern California. 
Then there was the line of small, old, and decaying wooden 
steamers, partly paddle, partly screw, sailing for San Fran- 
cisco but once a week, and often not more than twice a month, 
and even less in the Winter, and the sailing craft which carried 
the wheat surplus of the state through the Straits of Alagel- 
lan to Liverpool. The inhabitants, however, were doing well 
and seemed comfortable and contented. 

When I visited Portland in October, 1891, it claimed be- 
tween 80000 and 90,000 inhabitants, who had filled the site 
up to the hills and even flowed over the Willamette and built 
up East Portland and other suburbs to considerable size. The 
place had become a very important railroad centre, having 
direct connection with Tacoma. Seattle, and San Francisco, 
and the residents being able to travel and ship over three 
transcontinental lines, viz., over the Northern Pacific direct 
and over the Great Nortliern and Union Pacific, via the Ore- 



;o 



j^on Railroad and Xavigation Company. Its domestic and 
export trade had correspondingly increased, and much wealth 
had been gathered, as evidenced by' the great improvements 
in the business and residence quarters, and especially by the 
number of imposing" public buildings. hLverybody felt the 
greatest confidence in the future of the city. Real-estate 
values had reached a height that nobody had dreamed of 
twenty years before, and some confident friends predicted 
l)oldly that by the close of the century Portland would count 
far more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. It was not 
surprising, therefore, that in this liopeful frame of the public 
mind the Chamber of Conuncrce was unwilling to listen to 
predictions, such as I made, of the financial and commercial 
crash of 1893 as the inevitable consequence of the con- 
gressional silver legislation. 

' The catastrophe set in and found the Portland communit} 
as little prepared for it as the American people generally. 
The volume of general business fell fast to the point of stag- 
nation. Conmiercial houses failed, banks and savings-in- 
stitutions collajiscd, street-railway companies and other cor- 
porations passed into the hands of receivers, real estate be- 
came unsalable, unrcnted space in business buildings nndti- 
plied, and universal embarrassment and distress set in. Be- 
tween the crises of 1893 and 1896 a great further calamity 
came upon the city in the terrible flood of 1894, when the 
usual summer rise of the Willamette reached an unprecedented 
stage, inundated the principal business streets, and compelled 
the evacuation of lower floors for weeks. All this inflicted 
serious losses upon all classes of the population. Idiere 
were a score of very wealthy men in the city before that calam- 
itous i:)eriod. but there are said to be only a few left now. 
There was a joint note given by fifteen business men to raise 
the large balance needed to com])lete the Chanfl:)er of Com- 
merce building. Tlie_\- were all considered worth many times 
their share of the liability at the time, but I was told that only 
three could make it good after the crash came, all the rest 
having Ijecijme insolvent. The chief source of suft'ering 
seems to be the depreciation of real estate. Too man\- peo- 
ple are "land-poor." lUisiness only partiall}- returned to the 



(wo flooded streets next to the river, and they wear a deserte(! 
aspect for many blocks. It seems doubtful whether they will 
ever regain their former activity. 

Nevertheless, plain marks of reanimation are observable in 
Portland since 1897. The clearings of the banks do not dis- 
close any improvement, but both wholesale and retail mer- 
chiHits feel encouraged by larger sales and better collections. 
The railroads, too, carr}' more passengers and goods. The 
famous hotel. The Portland, the principal one on the coast 
north of San Francisco, is constantly filled to overflowing. 
The export trade in wheat, salmon, and flcur has held its own 
right along, but real estate continues in a sluggish condition, 
although building operations are resumed on a small scale. 

While the sentiment in business circles as to the future of 
Portland is generally hopeful, as at Tacoma, I also found 
desponding views prevailing to some extent. These appeared 
to be due mainly to the diminution of local capital, the steady 
narrowing of the commercial "sphere of influence" of Port- 
land by the inroads of Spokane and Seattle upon it in the 
state of Washington, the failure of the local efforts to obtain 
a satisfactory share of the Klondike trade, and, lastly, the com- 
pletion of a railroad along the Columbia River to Astoria, 
which threatens a transfer of the export trade from Portland 
to the rival towns at the mouth of the Columbia River. The 
absolute commercial supremacy of the North Pacific Coast 
trade, which Portland held up to the completion of the 
Northern Pacific, through the enterprise and financial strength 
of its two leading banks and largest wholesale houses, has 
passed away, and, instead of the former undisputed sway, the 
necessity for a strife with its rivals for the prizes of trade has 
existed for years. 

But energy and enterprise made Spokane and Seattle what 
they are to-day, and a fair field is open to Portland in Wash- 
ington and Oregon, the purchasing power of whose popula- 
tion has surely not decreased, and in this age of intense com- 
petition upon every field of human activity the city must not 
expect to be exempted from the operation of the merciless 
law of the survival of the fittest. As to the diminution of 
local capital, judging from the run of deposits in the principal 



banks, it is l)cin<;- made up fast enough, and, if there should 
be any lack of money for legitimate local enterprises, the high 
credit which those institutions command and the abundance 
of investment-seeking capital throughout the Union would 
make it easy to attract what was wanted from our financial 
centres. As to the Klondike trade, that is largely passing 
away, as explained in connection with Seattle, but it should 
be possible for Portland to draw profit from the exploitation 
of the vast resources of Alaska. While the starting of new 
manufacture is doubtless as difficult in Portland as in other 
Western cities, why should there not be, for instance, a large 
smelter on the Willamette as well as at Tacoma. where it is 
fed mainly with Alaskan ores ? As to the bugbear of the pass- 
ing of the shipping business. I cannot see that the new rail- 
road to Astoria will change the situation. For the grain ex- 
port trade would pass by Portland only if the railroads center- 
ing there made it and Astoria and the other towns at the 
mouth of the Columbia common points, and this would mean 
nothing less than the sacrifice of millions of revenue, which 
none of them can afiford to make. 



ALASKA. 



I. 



In April, 1876, I sailed from .San Francisco, on the old 
paddle-wheel steamship John L. Stephens, for Portland, Ore., 
where I was to assume control as President of the properties 
of the Oregon Steamship Company. On reaching the mouth 
of the Columbia River, we saw a little screw steamer of 300 
tons register dancing up and down on the agitated sea. It 
proved to be the Gussie Telfair, belonging to the company, 
on her way from Alaska to Portland, but detained outside 
bv the rougfh sea on the bar. She brought down from the 



33 



recently acquired American possession three passengers, a 
score of tons of niiscellaneons freight, and a letter-bag with 
less than thirty letters. The United States government, hav- 
ing established some civil authorities and a military post at 
Sitka, was in duty bound to maintain communication with 
its representaitives and troops, and the steamship company 
had reluctantly undertaken to perform a mail contract re- 
quiring it to make monthly trips to the point named. The 
passenger and freight traffic was too insignificant to make the 
route a profitable one. The trifling load described was about 
equal to the average one for a trip one way, and the busi- 
ness of the year aggregated only a few hundred passengers 
and not exceeding 700 tons of other than government 
freight. 

That represented practically the total of the Alaska trade 
in those days, and it grew very slowly, as no white settlements 
were made, with the exception of a few trading posts and fish- 
eries and the opening on a small scale of two or three mines. 
But it has greatly developed within a decade. During the 
last and the present seasons fifteen steamers, ranging from 
2,700 down to a few hundred tons capacity, carried tens of 
thousands of passengers and freight aggregating not far from 
a hundred thousand tons to and from Alaska. If William 
H. Seward, the originator of the deal with Russia for Alaska, 
and Charles Sumner, its godfather and principal defender 
in the United States Senate, were alive to-day, they would have 
unstinted encomiums heaped upon them for that bargain, 
instead of the scepticism, sarcasm, and denunciation of thirty 
vears ago. Eighty per cent, of the increase in the trade was 
gained in the last three years, and must be ascribed, to be sure, 
to the rush to the Klondike gold-fields, but no one who knows 
Alaska will dispute the proposition that it is one of the most 
attractive and most valuable acquisitions of territory ever 
made by the l^'nited States. 

As the western part of British Columbia intervenes be- 
tween the State of Washington and Alaska, the American 
railroad termini on Puget Sound are over six hundred miles 
from the southern boundary of the latter. Only two regular 
routes for travel and shipment to the interior of Alaska have 

34 



so far been developed, both, of eourse, entirely by water. One 
is by the outside open ocean passage to the roadstead of St. 
.Michael's near the many mouths of the Yukon and thence 
up the river: the other by the inside passage between the 
mainland and the successive groups of islands interposed be- 
tween it and the sea. The former is by far the longest, the 
distance from San l^-ancisco to St. Michael being 2,500 
nautical miles, and from I'uget Sound ports over 1,800, be- 
sides the distance up the Yukon, with its difficult navigation, 
while from Puget Sound it is less than 700 miles to the first 
landing in Alaska. The latter is also incomparably the more 
interesting route, and therefore taken far oftener by the 
traveling public. 

The first excursion party, numbering eighty, including Gen. 
Miles, then in command on the Pacific Coast, and a military 
band, went over the coastwise route, under my administration, 
on the steamship Idaho in 1881. Now thousands of pleasure 
travellers enjoy it every season. The largest and best steam- 
ers upon the coastwise route are those of the Pacific Coast 
Company, formerly the Oregon Improvement Company. The 
principal ones run upon it only during the tourist season, 
which may be said to last four to five months, from May into 
September. They sail every fortnight, taking up passengers 
at Tacoma, Seattle, and Victoria, and, as they are not very 
fast, make the round trip in from ten to twelve days. From 
the time of leaving till the return to Victoria, the tourists 
are cut off from all communication with any part of the W'Orld. 
but they are surprised at the ease with which they get recon- 
ciled to this deprivation of what they considered essentials of 
life, and at the restful effect of doing without them for a time. 

The programme is so arranged that there is ample time 
for sightseeing at the principal landings, and, as all the steam- 
ers carry freight and discharge and load at these points, the 
stoppages at several of them are, in fact, too long. Some de- 
lays are also unavoidable from the ebb and rise of the tide, 
which reaches variations of nearly thirty feet at the northern 
end of the route. While the steamers employed are jierhaps 
good enough for the ])resent re(|uirements of the service, 
it is evident from the increase in the number of round-trip 

35 



passengers during- the last few seasons that it is not too early 
to provide a different class of ships, better adapted to the 
peculiar traflfic. The most commodious of the steamers now 
running and the one most patronized by the public is the 
Queen, which was built in the East under my administration, 
,and on which I made the tour of Puget Sound with the com- 
pany's guests, on the opening of the Northern Pacific in 1883. 
i was a passenger on her this year and found her machinery 
improved and her speed increased, but her draught w^as too 
deep and her passenger accommodations were not up to 
modern standards. She carried altogether too many passen- 
gers for comfort. It may be still well enough to stick to the 6ld 
method of having three berths over each other in most of 
the staterooms for the short voyages from San Francisco to 
Portland and Puget Sound, but when trips are three and four 
times as long the antiquated arrangement becomes very try- 
ing. Then the necessity, from the overcrowding, of setting 
the table several times at each meal involves poor cooking, 
bad service, and general slovenliness. Among the passen- 
gers were refined and wealthy people from all parts of the 
United Staltes, showing that the tour already largely attracts 
a class able and willing to pay for the best accommodations. 
When the Portland-San Francisco line of the old Oregon 
Railway and Navigation Company was equipped with such fine 
new steamers as the Oregon, Columbia, and others, a good 
many people thought that they were far ahead ol the demands 
of the traffic, but these ships only illustrated the old truth 
that improved facilities increase travel, and proved none too 
large. Similarly it would seem that if three or four fast new 
steamers of the proper size and draught, with all the modern 
comforts for passengers, and with a speed of not under 
eighteen knots, were put on the route it would result in an 
immediate and large gain of travel. Such steamers could 
easily make the present round trip in from five to six days, 
and thereby either save much time or use it to extend the tour 
so as to include in the programme more of the all but inex- 
haustible natural attractions of Alaska. 

It may be said without exaggeration that no other part of 
the earth known to man surpasses Alaska in imposing and 

36 



beautiful sccner\ . 'Jho mosl Iravelled of those who behold 
the extent and variety of its scenic magnificence and whose 
souls are open to such appeals of nature will readily admit 
that the\- have never seen the like of it, and that nothing they 
ever saw impressed them so deeply. They will be struck 
first with the vastness and wildness of the region traversed. 
Imagine 600,000 square miles of wilderness, of which prob- 
ably less than a twentieth part has as yet been trodden by 
human beings. The merest specks of white and aboriginal 
settlements exist on the shores and river banks, aggre- 
gating a few thousands in population. Hundreds of miles of 
shore line are passed without discovering any sign of life 
but the water fowl and the numerous bald-headed eagles 
perching on tree-tops. The contemplation of the solenui 
solitude of this great primeval realm is truly awe-inspiring. 

One of the unique features of Alaska is its remarkable 
system of natural connected waterways, of sounds, ()ays, and 
estuaries, channels, canals, straits, and narrows, ranging in 
length and width from less 'than one to hundreds of miles, 
with but few direct openings into the ocean, and forming an 
unbroken line of navigation all the distance from l\iget Sound 
along the coast of British Columbia to the great Alaskan pen- 
insula, stretching far out towards Asia into the North Pacific. 
The steamer winds its way through one archipelago after an- 
other. The one named after the P2mperor Alexander is re- 
markable for its extension through four degrees of latitude 
and its mass of 1,100 islands, ranging in area from thousands 
of square miles to small protuberances, with varying surfaces 
of great height and low level. The passage along this chain 
of watercourses is generally safe and smooth, but the tluctu- 
ations of the tide produce in some of the straits and narrows 
strong currents retiuiring careful navigation, and at a few 
points delay for high water to avoid dangerous rocks, agaiast 
which a number of vessels have already been wrecked. 

Most captivating of all, however, are the enchanting shore 
views unfolded, with imceasing change, before the amazed 
tourist from the beginning to the end of the voyage. The 
immediate contours of the landscape are formed by tiers 01 



comely hills, rising from the water's edge, all densely clad 
from top to bottom in the sombreness of Northern evergreens. 
At more or less distance behind and high above them towers 
everywhere a mighty background of ranges of much loftier 
mountains, reaching Alpine heights as huge pyramids, sharp 
peaks, stupendous walls, and gigantic humps, or as long un- 
broken crests, all more or less capped and ribbed with snow 
and ice. The perennial verdure of the foreground contrasts 
startlingly with the desolation of the great ramparts behind, 
and the whole forms, with the frequent silver bands and 
threads of waterfalls descending from the heights to the sea. 
an indescribable picture of singular loveliness and command- 
ing majesty. The mountainous shores, too. open ever and 
anon into picturesque hiJl-bound inlets of varying width and 
indiscernible length, very much like the fjords of Norway. 

But the most remarkable revelations of the tour are the 
"frozen waves," the enormous masses of moving ice, the glac- 
iers, that show their dread countenances in great numbers 
at the heads of the inlets or hang on the crowns and 
sides of the snow mountains or fill the gorges between 
them. A score or more of enormous glaciers, with ice- 
crusts hundreds of feet thick and stretching back from 
a few to scores of miles and their bases washed by 
the sea, may be plainly seen. Among them Muir Glacier in 
Glacier Bay in the shadow of the Fairweather range, with 
its lofty summits from ii.ooo to 16,000 feet high, forms the 
climax of the trip as the greatest Arctic wonder. More than 
three thousand ice-fields, a number of them even larger than 
the Muir, are said to have been counted from the shores and 
river banks, and nobody knows how many more may be ex- 
tant in the unexplored interior. 

Such are, briefly sketched, the extraordinary scenic fascina- 
tions which the tourists to Alaska enjoy in the fullest meas- 
ure, and which, I repeat without hesitation, are unsurpassed 
anywhere on our globe. I feel confident, too, that the time will 
come within the next generation when the Alaska route will 
be the most frequented in the world, and when the Alaskan 
coast will swarm with private yachts, as is now the case in 
Maine. Scotland, and Norway during the Summer months. 

38 



II. 

It is now a great (lra\vl;ack that there is not yet a good pubUc 
house to be found anywhere in Alaska, and breaks in the 
journey are, therefore, out of the question. If suital)le stop- 
ping-places and facilities for side trips were provided for so- 
journers, many would doubtless take advantage of them. 
Norway afifords a good example for imitation in this respect. 
This would also be a means of opening the rare opportuni- 
ties in Alaska for fishing and hunting to sportsmen. Alaska 
is not only a joyful Mecca for the travelling public, but a land 
of promise generally. At the time of its acquisition the pre- 
vailing ignorance of its resources and the fact that it came 
from Russia to us led to a popular misconception of its phys- 
ical characteristics, and it came to be looked upon as an irre- 
deemable boreal region, a counterpart to the worst part of 
Siberia, and entirely unfit for settlement by Anglo-Americans. 
This wrong impression has slowly changed to a better under- 
standing of its real features. The Klondike rush has made 
very effective propaganda for Alaska. It compelled the press 
to seek and print information, and led to the publication of a 
numljer of descriptive books regarding it. But while much, 
light has thus been diffused, it remains true that our stock of 
actual knowledge concerning Alaska is still very limited. 

Though deliberateil}- taken into her parental fold and for a 
large consideration to boot, Columbia has treated her last 
adoption very much like a stepchild. The Federal govern- 
ment has so far made but limited efforts to ascertain and pub- 
lish the actual value of its new possession to the American 
people . and what the inducements offered in that field to cor- 
porate and individual enterprises, up to within the last f^w 
years. The climatic relations of small parts of Alaska have 
been regularly observed, but little has been done to find out 
the extent of die land fit for cultivation, and no systematic 
geological exploration was undertaken. Nor is it long since 
the Government began formal examinations into the timber 
resources of Alaska. It was left to private ventures to demon- 
strate that .Maskan waters teemed with useful fish, and that 



39 



her mountains, valleys, and plains contained precious mineral 
re.'^ourccs. 

Still, sufficient evidence is now available to establish beyond 
dispute certain facts reg'ardino- the best-know.i part, southeast- 
ern Alaska, with the scanty settlements of whites and aborig- 
ines along the coast. The climate is even milder, though also 
more humid, owing to the near flow of the warm Japanese 
current, than that of the corresponding latitudes of Europe, 
th.at is, Scotland, southern Norway and Sweden, and central 
Russia between St. Petersburg and Moscow. While but a 
limited area of tillable land has so far been found and utilized 
along the watercourses, owing to the almost invariably abrupt 
steepness of the shores and banks — prdbably not a thousand 
acres are under cultivation — the soil is deep and very produc- 
tive of vegetables, root crops, and the hardier cereals. The 
natural vegetation is luxuriant, and grows up in the spring 
and summer with remarkable rapidity. The abundance of 
nutritious wild grasses seems to indicate special opportunities 
for pastoral pursuits. The variety and quantity of palatable 
wild fruit everywhere are astonishing. Not much is as yet 
known of the agricultural capacity of the country back of the 
great mountain ranges, but the favorable reports made by the 
government expeditions into the valleys of the Copper, 
Tannah, and Sushitna Rivers and their tributaries are very 
encouraging in this respect. As to the quality of the timber 
in the vast forests, the United States timber agent, who has 
been exploring there for several seasons, states that there was 
abundance of the finest cedar, spruce, and hemlock in south- 
eastern Alaska. 

There are dozens of fisheries already in operation at dif¥i?rent 
points, and their experience shows that there are unfailing- 
runs of salmon, halibut, cod, herring; and other commercial 
species. -The mineral resources seem no less abundant. Al- 
aska will make a great record according to all present indica- 
tions. Veins of 'Coal have been disicovered at various points 
on the coast, but with the ample supply of good and cheap coal 
from Puget Sound mines, it would hardly pay to work them. 
Fine building stone abounds, and great finds of marble are re- 
ported. As a mining country Al'aska is sure to command 
more and more attention. I do not refer to the Klondike srold 



40 



liekls.hiit to the prospect within the boundaries of the territory 
proper, which, according to all indications, will yield largely 
in gold, silver, and copper. During the present year a new 
placer region was found by prospectors in the extreme north- 
western part that, according to published testimony, bids fair 
to turn out richer than the Klondike district and the Atlin dis- 
trict in British Columbia ; the richest, indeed, ever discovered 
anywhere. It has become popularly known as the Cape Nome 
country and is described as extending along the shores of 
Norton Sound in the northeastern part of Behring Sea be- 
tween the i6ist and 165th degrees of longitude and 63rd and 
65th degrees of latitude, about the same as the Klondike, and 
alJ the rivers and creeks flowing into it. Curiously, the very 
beach sand and gravel around the Bay are said to be auri- 
ferous. 

But independent of these alluvial gold resources, what with 
the other mines already regularly worked and the discoveries 
constantly being made in half-a-dozen districts on the coast, 
Alaska is likely to prove as full of the three metals as any State 
in the Union. The Juneau district affords the most telling 
testimony in this regard. Its annual product is claimed to 
reach already over six millions. The principal producer is 
the famous Treadwell mine on Douglas Island. Its technical 
evolution is a most creditable monument to thi- intelligence 
and perseverance of its owners and managers. Think of crush- 
ing and separating-works running 800 stamps (including the 
Alaskan ^old mine controlled by the same owners) — no min- 
ing mill in the world has a greater number — with an annual 
capacity of nearly seven hundred thousand tons of rock, blast- 
ed from a mountain only a few hundred feet away, and yield- 
ing on an average only $2.60 per ton, which low product illus- 
trates most significantly the progress of the mining art in the 
present generation. 

For the rest, as in all gold regions, it will take nol only pluck 
and patience to develop the treasures of the Alaskan mount- 
ains, but also capital and a good deal of it. With such results 
as those of the Treadwell, however, the latter will, no doubt, 
be forthcoming, especially as in some directions mining wall 
be carried on in .\laska under special advantages. I'or there 

4' 



Nature furnishes an easy solution of the transportation prob- 
lem, which elsewhere often presents insuperable obstacles to 
successful mining. The location of the deposits is usually in 
the immediate vicinity of navigable water, so that the ship- 
ment of ore involves only small difficulty and expense. Thus, 
at the Treadwell, the steamers which bring coal and carry 
away the "concentrates" lie at a pier on a level with and only 
an eighth of a mile from the stamp-mills, which again are at 
the foot of and at no greater distance from the quarry which 
supplies the rock. Numerous waterfalls likewise insure 
abundance of cheap power throughout Alaska. 

The agricultural capacity of Alaska is, as explained, as yet 
not a sure factor in its future development. But even if the 
country should bring disappointment in this respect, it sliould 
not hinder the successful pursuit oflumber, fishing, and mining 
industries. For the cheap communication by water with the 
great agricultural States of Washington and Oregon will al- 
ways enable the inhabitants of Alaska to supply all their food 
wants at reasonable prices. 

Not counting the floating population of miners and fisher- 
men and lumbermen, which stays in Alaska only from Spring 
till early Fall, or the various tribes of Indians, which are es- 
timated to aggregate between 40,000 and 50,000, the actual 
white residents probably do not exceed ten thousand. Nor 
is it surprising that the nunvber is not yet greater. Tlie princi- 
pal reason is without question that in consequence of the in- 
difference of the Federal exe:ut>e authorities and of Congress, 
Alaska is left to this day without a form of government afiford- 
inr; such protection to persons and property as Anglo-Ameri- 
cans require for the safe pursuit of business enterprises. Al- 
aska is a dependency of the Federal government not like 
the organized territories with regular executive, judiciarv. and 
legislative branches of government, but like that of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ; under the direct control of Congress and 
without any voice of the people in the choice of its rulers. 
The government consists of a Governor with hardly anv func- 
tions, one Federal district judge with the usual court officers, 
a Surveyor-General, a Custom and Revenue Collector, all 
located at Sitka, and four United States Commissioners sta- 
tioned at as many different points. But there is really neither 

42 



l^'fiieral iu)r district nor municipal cjovcrniiU'nl any whore in 
tlic Territory so far. It is not too nmch to ^ay. indeed, that 
actual anarchy prevails. 

A singular anoma'ly is shown in the existing" laws. They 
are the g"eneral laws of the L'nited States and those of the 
State of Oregon, which the Federal Leg'islature in its wisdom 
decreed to be in force, altlunig'h the Territory of Washington 
and British Columbia lay between, probably simply because 
it was the statutory law' of the nearest State. The Gov- 
ernor's official limitations may be judged from the fact that 
there is not a sing'le organized county or district and not 
a single officer subject to his authority exce])t his imme- 
diate assistants. There are no secure land titles, inasmuch as 
the act of Congress of March, 1895, e.xtending the homestead 
act to Alaska, provides that titles shall become effective only 
when the United .States survey shall extend over them, which 
is about as imcertain as when the first railroad \vill be Imilt 
from Puget Sound to the Klondike. The Federal judge 
deals chiefly with criminal cases. There is nothing like the 
extent of his circuit anywhere else in the F'nglish-speaking 
world. All he and his court officers can do is to make about 
one round in the course of a year. He and his cortege came 
up from Juneau with us l)ound for St. Michael by way of Ska- 
guav, White Pass, Dawson, and down the Yukon, a totul dis- 
tance of about 4,000 nn'les, and from Lake Pennett nearly all 
the way by slow lake and river boats. In short, a condition 
still prevails in Alaska which is little better than anarchy, and 
as long as it continues, people will naturally hesitate to make 
permanent investments there. As a numb^'r of Cnited States 
Senators and Congressmen were made acquainted with this 
unsatisfactory sittiation during their jiersonal visits to Alaska 
this Summer, it may be lu)])ed that Congress will at last be in- 
duced to ]M-o\ide for its lu-gent wants. 



IIT. 

It would probably be thought strange if I closed this series 
of articles without some references to the Klondike. There 



was a disposition on the part of Americans, due to the pre- 
ponderance of their countrymen in the rush there, to look 
upon the new gold fields as a sort of joint tenure between them 
and the Canadians. This illusion has been rudely dispelled. 
The Klondike and adjacent Canadian districts, notwithstand- 
ing the overwhelming influx of Americans into them in 1897 
and 1898, are now and will remain as much beyond American 
control as those of South Africa and Australia ; and the sooner 
this is fully realized the better. The fact is at once brought 
home to the newcomer on reaching Skaguay, the head of 
navigation on the Lynn Canal, by the sight of the red coats 
of the Dominion police and of the uniforms of the Canadian 
custom-house ofificers. These representatives of the Domin- 
ion government are stationed there for the convenience of 
the inbound Klondike trafific, so as to avoid the examination 
of luggage and goods during the transit to Dawson. The 
same living reminders of foreign authority are, however, also 
visible at Summit station, thirty-three miles cut from Skaguay 
on the narrow-gauge railroad, built this year to Lake Bennett, 
where the star-spangled banner, planted on a knoll beside a 
British flag, marks the frontier line observed by the muti:al 
forbearance of the two powers till the settlement of the 
boundary dispute. These symbols proclaim the formal erec- 
tion of the international barrier which, but for the discovery 
of the Klondike, nobody would have ever thought of raising. 
A further decided assertion of sovereign control was the 
passage of the alien-exclusion act by the Legislature of Brit- 
ish Columbia in February last, forbidding the further issue 
of mining licenses to American citizens within its limits. The 
effect of these two measures is greatly to reduce the value of 
the Klondike gold fields to Americans. For the Canadian 
merchants and manufacturers can ship their goods to the 
Klondike in bond without liability to duty, and are thus fav- 
ored to the extent of the customs charges in their competition 
with American rivals. The efifect of this difference was n^.t 
felt in the first rush before the customs line was established, 
and in 1897 American traders, owing to the nearness of the 
shipping centres on Puget Sound, had almost a monopoly of 
the business. But the next season the Canadians appeared 

44 . 



in the field as competitors, and since then there has been a 
rapid falhng off in the quantity of American goods shipped in. 
I was told by the agent of the steamship lines at Skaguay that, 
while at first the American proportion of the importations was 
fully 90 per cent., there was a decline to under 25 per cent, 
during the past season, and it was even thought that next year 
it would fall to 10 per cent. 

The withdrawal of prospecting and mining privileges from 
Americans by JJritish Columbia does not affect their relations 
in the Klondike district proper, which lies in the Northwest 
Territory, but in the more recently discovereil Atlin placer 
mines to the south of the former. The alien act recognizes 
rights acquired before its passage, but is otherwise distinctly 
aggressive and provocative. It has naturally greatly angered 
the American Pacific Coast public. The protest addressed to 
President ^IcKinley by American prospectors will be remem- 
bered, and it may be considered certain that some of the recent 
congressional visitors to Alaska will bring on a discussion of 
the subject in both houses. The podicy of British Columbia 
does not follow the liberal precedent set in South Africa. It 
was adopted, no doubt, from fear that the growing numerical 
preponderance of Americans would produce the same dif^- 
culties that the "outlanders" have created in the Transvaal. 
There is some hope that the exclusion act will be repealed 
this Winter. 

Whether the Klondike and adjacent districts will only tem- 
porarily or permanently contribute, and in what degree, to the 
stock of gold of the world, remains an open (piestion which 
may not be solved for years. Should their golden glory be 
transient, the troublesome boundary dispute will naturally 
pass away with it. As the original sources of the j^rolific de- 
posits so far exploited, the mother veins, have not yet been 
found, there is still only placer mining, with the usual uncer- 
tainty as to the duration and amount of the yield. It is dif- 
ficult to get at the exact truth regarding the current gold 
]:)roduct, but it_ seems safe to say that while the yield during 
the season of 1899 will not be as large as that of 1898. it will 
yet reach v$ 10.000.000. Well-informed persons who handle 
the bulk of the "gold crop" believe that the annual turn-out 

45 



will not be less for at least some years to come. Regarding 
the apparently larger number of outgoing than incoming peo- 
ple, they contend that it is simply a sign of the disappear- 
ance of the disappointed and worthless gold-seeking chaiY, 
whose exodus is rather a gain than a loss to the remaining 
real working population. 

As the case now lies, no international complications should 
arise from it, as, on the one side, the United States are con- 
tent with the territorial limits now observed, and as, on the 
other side, the Canadians have control of the trade and the 
gold production as a source of revenue under the high lo per 
cent. tax. It seems further that the roles of the contending 
powers might be reversed to our advantage — that is, the 
Americans are in more need of concessions from the Canadi- 
ans than the latter are from the Americans. It certainly 
would be a boon to our citizens to be readmitted to the exer- 
cise of free mining privileges in British Columbia, and to 
competition for the general trade with the gold districts on 
equal terms with the Canadians by a reciprocal treaty, and, for 
such benefits, they could weill afiford to yield some adequate 
counter-considerations. 

One thing was definitely settled during 1899, viz., the su- 
])remacy of the Skaguay and the lakes route to Dawson over 
that by ocean to St. Michael and up tlie Yukon. The time 
from and to Puget Sound ports over the former has been re- 
duced to from ten or twelve days, while the infrequent de- 
partures to and from St. Michael , and the uncertainties of the 
trip up and down the Yukon, require for the latter from four 
to six weeks. The shorter route, imperfect as it is, is thus 
likely to secure a substantial monopoly of the trafific with the 
gold districts. The railroad, as already mentioned, extends 
from Skaguay through the White Pass (the horrors of which 
in the early part of the rush were greatly exaggerated) for 
only forty-two miles to Lake Bennett, whence there is steam- 
boat navigation through to Dawson, with the exception of 
one short tramway portage at the so-called White Horse 
Rapids. 

The English owners of the railroad have a very expensive 
piece of property. Much of the construction was done dur- 

46 



ini;- tlie Winter, in a vcr\- costly struggle with snow and ice 
and the natural difficulties of the ground. The total cost, in- 
cluding equipment, is said to have reached the almost incred- 
ible figure of $4,000,000, or nearly $100,000 a mile. But the 
earnings during the past season were so large that the stock- 
holders feel encouraged to expend more capital in construc- 
tion. The company has so far been aljile to enforce what is 
probably the highest railroad tariff in the world. When the 
line was opened for a distance of thirty-five miles, the rates 
were $20, or nearly 60 cents a mile, for passengers, and $120, 
or about $3.50 a ton a mile, for freight. But this freight 
charge was considered moderate compared with the doUar-a- 
pound rate to Dawson which carriers exacted in 1897 and 
1898. For some months the passenger rate has been reduced 
to $10, or about 25 cents a mile, and the freight rate to $60, 
or about $1.50 a ton a mile, to Lake Bennett. The gross 
receipts from the forty-two miles during the Summer months 
are believed to have been considerably over $20,000 a mile, 
with probably not more than 25 per cent, operating expenses. 
What line in the United States or anywhere can beat this? 
The earnings will drop, however, to a very low point as soon 
as navigation by the lakes to Dawson is stopped by freezing 
weather. The company will put in at once another rail link 
in the route to Dawson by building from Bennett City to the 
Tahkheend River, a distance of a little over eighty miles, to be 
finished by June 1, 1900. 

The United States government has been engaged in locating 
and constructing a wagon road and trail from \aldes Inlet on 
Prince William Sound, some 500 miles almost due west of 
Skaguay. to Copper River, and over the range of which 
-Mount Wrangel. believed to be over 20.000 feet, is the high- 
est peak. It is intended to extend the road to the Yukon, 
near Dawson, an estimated distance of about 400 miles, 
whence navigation to its mouth is comparatively good. The 
work is in charge of Capt. Abercrombie. who led exploring 
exj)cditions as early as 1884. and again in 1898. He is said to 
have overcome the greatest difficulties of the route in com- 
pleting the first ninety miles of a trail four feet wide during 
the past season. Unless good mines are found along the 

47 



road, however, regarding which liis explorations last year de- 
veloped nothing definite, it is difficult to understand the ob- 
ject of this undertaking, as so long a land route is not likely 
to be used in preference to the Skaguay- Dawson rail and 
water route. The only perceptible advantage v/ill be that the 
road will lie wholly within American territory. 



48 





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